This invention relates to a paper wrapper construction for use in conjunction with a smoking article, such as a cigarette. Specifically, the paper wrapper of the invention alters the characteristics of the smoking article including burn rate, puff count, and tar delivery with the use of fine particle size calcium carbonate as a mineral filler.
Cigarette paper has traditionally been used in the cigarette industry to control a number of properties of the completed cigarette. Such properties include burn rate, puff count, and tar delivery. In virtually all cases, however, changes to the cigarette paper have been restricted to two properties of the paper: paper porosity and level of burn control additive.
The relationship of paper porosity to cigarette performance is well understood by the industry. For instance, as inherent paper porosity is increased, burn rate increases, causing puff count and, therefore, total tar delivery to decrease. In general, the faster the burn rate, the lower the puff count. Tar per puff remains approximately constant. If, however, paper porosity is increased through perforation of the paper (increase in paper permeability), then puff count increases and tar per puff decreases due to air dilution during the puff. Static burn rate, however, remains essentially unchanged.
Level of burn control additive is also used to control puff count and tar delivery. Increasing burn control additive over the range typically used (0.5% to 3% by weight) increases burn rate and therefore decreases puff count and total tar delivery.
Despite the flexibility which can be achieved in cigarette design through the manipulation of paper porosity and level of burn control additive, there are instances when a desired cigarette design cannot be optimally achieved by controlling either of these two paper properties. Many examples are in the area of low delivery cigarettes; however, there are certain examples in the category of full flavor cigarettes as well.
Furthermore, controlling a cigarette's properties by adding burn control additives or changing the paper porosity can cause undesired effects. Using high levels of burn control additive or changing paper porosity may produce an undesired decrease in the subjective impact of the smoking article, including lessened taste. Taste is also often sacrificed if a low tar delivery cigarette is designed with a tobacco blend to lower the tar delivery.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a paper wrapper for a smoking article that can be used to design a cigarette with a certain burn rate.
It would also be desirable to provide a paper wrapper for a smoking article that can be used to design a cigarette with a certain puff count.
It would further be desirable to provide a paper wrapper for a smoking article that can be used to design a cigarette with a certain tar delivery.
It would further be desirable to provide a paper wrapper for a smoking article that can be used to design a cigarette with certain desired characteristics that does not require high levels of burn control additive or major changes in tobacco blend.
It would further be desirable to provide a paper wrapper for a smoking article that can be used to design a cigarette with certain desired characteristics without excessively diminishing the subjective impact, such as taste, of the smoking article.